In Search of Emerging Polities : Thematic Agendas of Selected European Cross-Border Cooperation Structures

The objective of this paper is to find several answers by investigating the extent to which the cross-border cooperation structures (CBCS) act as de facto emerging polities. The scope of research is limited to the layer of territorial cooperation, namely the policy space or more exactly the thematic agendas of a sample of selected CBCS: Council of the Baltic Sea States, Greater Region, and Nordic Council, Oresund Region (OR) and South Eastern European Region (SEER). We design a methodological approach based on a content analysis of public documents or papers specific to each area. For two of the selected regions – Baltic and Oresund – the results support the working hypothesis that a converging approach towards issues of common concern may be a condition for deeper regional integration and, more specifically, for the viability of emerging polities. This research, however, did not look farther than the policy space that is relevant for the territorial integration of markets, leaving aside the economic and the socio-cultural spaces, for which different conceptual frameworks and methodologies are needed